Kelly Preston: A Life In Pictures

By Rachel West. 13 Jul 2020 2:00 PM

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, actress Kelly Preston quietly succumbed to the disease on July 12, 2020, at the age of 57. We look back at some of the highlights of Preston, wife to John Travolta for nearly 30 years and mother of three.

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First Role
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First discovered at age 16 by a fashion photographer who helped get her early commercial gigs, Preston made her acting debut on a 1980 episode of “Hawaii Five-O” at age 18. It was a natural fit for the actress who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith, Preston was still working on her stage name in the early 1980s and was credited as Kelly Palzis – her stepfather’s last name - in her early career.
Making ‘Mischief’
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By the time the actress had landed her first big film role in 1985’s “Mischief”, she changed her name to Preston which, she would use throughout her career. The mid-1980s saw her gain increasingly larger parts in movies, including “SpaceCamp” opposite Lea Thompson and Tate Donovan as a group of teens who accidentally get sent into space.
Romance For Preston
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In 1985, Preston married actor Kevin Gage. The pair divorced in 1987 and Preston later had a relationship with George Clooney in the late 1980s. She was also briefly engaged to Charlie Sheen in 1990 but it was reported that the relationship ended after he allegedly shot her in the arm – a claim she denied.
‘The Experts’
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Preston first met John Travolta in 1987 when they starred in the comedy “The Experts”.
Wedding Bells
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Preston married Travolta on September 5, 1991, by jetting to Paris on the Concorde to tie the knot. A second ceremony was required because the first, performed by a French minister of Scientology was deemed invalid. On September 12, they had a legal U.S. ceremony in Florida.
Motherhood
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With Travolta, Preston welcomed three children: Jett born in 1992, Ella Bleu in 2000, and Benjamin in 2010. Son Jett was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease as an infant, was autistic, and suffered from seizures throughout his life. Preston promoted Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s “Purification Rundown” in helping her son.
1990s Films
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Some of Preston’s most memorable roles came in the 1990s: opposite Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire”, “Addicted To Love”, “Nothing To Lose”, “Holy Man”, “For Love Of The Game”, and “Jack Frost”.
Family Tragedy
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Tragically, at age 16, Jett died following a seizure while the family was on vacation in the Bahamas.

It was later revealed the family was the subject of a multi-million extortion plot over the circumstances surrounding their son’s death. An EMT, Bahamian senator and a parliament member were arrested and charged, though Preston and Travolta eventually elected to drop the case.
TV Work
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Throughout her career, Preston made several guest appearances on TV shows, including “Friends” spinoff “Joey”, “Medium”, “Fat Actress” and “CSI: Cyber”. The actress also made a cameo in Maroon 5’s 2004 song “She Will Be Loved”.
Philanthropy
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Both Preston and Travolta lent their names and time to several charitable causes over the years, mostly directed towards helping children, including the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. She was a board member of the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition and was an advocate against the over-medication of children, in particular kids with ADD. She and Travolta also founded the Jett Travolta Foundation, which “assists and provide relief to children with vision, hearing, mobility, communication, behavior learning impairments or other special medical, environmental, health or educational needs,” according to their site.
Teaming Up With Travolta
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“The Experts” wasn’t the only film to feature Preston and Travolta. Over the course of their careers, the couple worked together a number of times, including on “Battlefield Earth”, “Old Dogs”, and, in what is one of her final appearances, Travolta’s passion project “Gotti”, the biopic of John Gotti.
Final Film Role
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Though she had cut back on acting following the birth of son Benjamin, Preston did act occasionally through the 2010s. At the time of her death she had one final film in post-production awaiting release. She will be seen in “Off The Rails”, a comedy about four women in their 50s who recreate the European train trip they took in their youth, with a teen daughter taking the place of her late mother fulfil her dying wish.

Kelly Preston: A Life In Pictures

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